Australia’s women’s handball team have come sixth after going down to African champions Angola, losing today’s second leg 39-12 as their 2010 Youth Olympics campaign wrapped up.

The Aussies managed to remain within striking distance of the Angolans for most of the first half but tired in the second as the Africans repeated their dominant display from the first leg.

Despite being unable to register a win in Singapore, the Aussies continued to improve as a team throughout the tournament after their first pool match loss to handball powerhouse Denmark, 41-4.

The green and gold started well as their defence held tight, before Alice Keighley converted their good early work into an advantage on the scoreboard, putting the ball past Angolan keeper Valdemira Van Dunem.

The Africans then rattled off three goals straight to build a 3-1 lead, before Aussie Sally Cash stopped the run as she shot high into the net. It was déjà vu though as the Angolans did what they did in the first leg and got out to an early lead opening up a 7-2 midway through the first half with some swift passing up court and classy finishing in front of goal.

A good movement stopped the onslaught as Keighley handed it off to Cash, blowing by the Angolan defence and putting it in the back of the net.

After the Angolans put it back out to a five goal lead the Aussies put on their best play of the tournament as keeper Taylee Lewis blocked a hard shot from the Africans, with the ball landing in the hands of Tegan Poulton. The Aussies broke up the court as Poulton centred to Paulini Tawamacala before handing it off to Cash who drove hard and converted to have the scores at 8-4.

The Angolans increased the lead to six, until crowd favourite Huriwai put the scores at 10-5 when Lewis got an outlet pass long down the field, drawing her opposite number out as Huriwai had converted into an open goal.

It was back to back goals for the green and gold as Fletcher put away one of her signature shots high into the net. The Africans finished the half the stronger though as they opened up a 16-8 lead at the break.

While Aussie Holly Tupper scored first up for the green and gold, it was only one of four goals they would score in the second as they struggled to keep up with the pace and strength of their opponents.

After goals to Najdovski and Fletcher the Africans finished the game on a 17-1 run as Angola’s Nagulua Kanka finished with a tally of 11 with Jocelina Yanda next best with eight.

“I think we’ve had a massive improvement since the first match and this one, but the scoreboard obviously didn’t show it that way today,” Keighley said.

“We were tired after having to play three tough matches and that showed in the second half, but we’re all really happy with the first half of today and yesterday’s games.” As their Youth Olympics campaign draw to a close the Aussies know they had been part of something special.

“It has been awesome,” Tupper said.

“We have been able to experience all of this (the games) along with getting to watch other matches and learn from them, so it has been amazing.”

The team is now hoping they can take what they have learnt from Singapore 2010 and share it with the rest of Australia.

“There are two things we want out of this,” Keighley said. “One is personal development so we’re all improving our own skills and the other is that so we can help handball to grow in Australia and gain more exposure.

Hopefully the Youth Olympics can show Australia this sport does exist and hopefully we can more people to enjoy it.” With a few days off, the handball team will now look to do what they can to help the rest of the Australian team push for some late medals.

“We’ll definitely be cheering on Australia for the rest of the games.”

Matt Bartolo
AOC